1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to cigarettes and other smoking articles, and more specifically to an improved structural design for a cigarette and cigarette paper, as well as an apparatus and method for the manufacture of such an improved cigarette.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cigarette smoking has been and remains a popular activity for many people. Most modern cigarettes are made by the use of standard industrial, mass-production cigarette manufacturing machines using choice tobacco and fine cigarette paper, admittedly produce a generally high-quality, consistent cigarette. All known manufactured cigarettes are of a common physical structure; a quantity of tobacco homogeneously contained and dispersed throughout a cylindrical cigarette paper wrapper, with or without an integral, typically fibrous filter portion on one end. Such a structure for a cigarette may be common and accepted, but can be improved. Furthermore, such consistency in manufacture is evidenced by a specific, unmodifiable product once manufactured, resulting in considerable purchaser "trial and error" in searching for a satisfactory cigarette brand yielding the desired taste and degree of smoothness.
Most cigarette papers typically only provide the combustible wrapper to contain the enclosed tobacco. One distinguishing feature of many "manufactured" cigarettes (as opposed to consumer-rolled) is the quality, or even presence, of a cigarette filter, which is typically of a completely separate material and structure installed on one end of the finished cigarette. While filtering a cigarette provides many apparent advantages to the smoker, both in smoking satisfaction and health benefits, many non-commercial rolling machines do not accommodate such filters, nor are such filters readily available or conducive for manual attachment to a cigarette. Accordingly, most consumer-roller cigarettes are unfiltered, obviating such potential advantages of filtering.
Modern commercial cigarette manufacturing machines, while well-suited for mass production of large quantities of cigarettes, are typically bulky, complex and expensive devices, which are mechanically unsuitable for reduction in size for personal or consumer use. In addition, while there are several portable cigarette-rolling machines that have been developed for personal use, they are themselves still relatively bulky, are not conductive to carrying on the person, and do not easily produce a quality or consistent cigarette, minus trial, error, and practice.